If your loved one just suffered from a stroke, then their primary care physician has likely enlisted in the help of a stroke rehab team, also called a stroke group, to help them regain recover from this traumatic event and regain the skills they lost due to the way the stroke affected their brain.
A stroke can cause many types of temporary and long-term disabilities that range from an inability to move certain muscles to memory loss and other cognitive problems.
However, Hiring a stroke group in New York can help your loved one relearn how to perform many tasks they now rely on caregivers to perform on their own, decrease the chance of them suffering from long-term physical disability, and help improve their cognitive skills.
Read on to learn about a few of the most common members of a stroke group and just how they help stroke survivors, such as your loved one, during the stroke rehabilitation process.
Physical and Occupational Therapists
Two important members of your loved one's stroke group likely include a physical therapist (PT) and an occupational therapist (OT). While the roles of physical and occupational therapists do have their similarities, each of these professionals help stroke survivors relearn how to complete different tasks on their own to help reduce their dependence on caregivers.
A physical therapist focuses on helping a stroke survivor re-hone their gross motor skills, with the most important of these skills being walking. A stroke survivor may spend several hours performing physical therapy activities every day to increase the chance that they will be able to walk around independently in the future.
An occupational therapist, on the other hand, helps a stroke survivor relearn how to perform many additional daily tasks, such as bathing, dressing, and eating, independently over time.
Speech Therapist
People who suffer from strokes often develop communication problems called aphasia. Nonfluent aphasia, which causes a person to continue to be able to understand what others say, yet struggle to produce words and sentences of their own, often occurs when a stroke affects the left frontal area of the brain. Damage to other areas of the brain during a stroke can lead to nonfluent aphasia, which can cause problems with both understanding and producing speech.
A speech therapist helps those who suffer from both types of communication problems a stroke can cause regain their communication skills. While one of the speech therapist's goals is to help a stroke sufferer learn to understand and speak words and sentences again, they also teach stroke survivors alternative communication forms they can use as they regain their spoken language skills.
If your loved one just suffered from a stroke, then understand that their stroke rehab group members all have important roles in your loved one's post-stroke rehab program. Never hesitate to ask your loved one's stroke group physicians what their roles in the stroke rehab group entail.
